18-Mar-2018, 16:51
Another weekend of A/B testing for me, but not for my recently acquired SOtM modified switch. In fact, I decided on Saturday that I had had enough of A/B testing for a while, and just wanted to enjoy some music. Although the switch was tempting me, so I decided to install the thing, if only to commence getting some hours on it. The idea being that when I do A/B test the switch, at least 'burn in' is eliminated as a potential factor. And a very enjoyable Saturday of listening it was too, the system was sounding splendid, but there was still this niggle about the microRendu maybe being slightly smoother in the higher frequencies. Next week will mark one month from the date I received the SOtM 'bundle'. This is significant because I have the option to return within one month, by next weekend it is time out. For this reason, I decided that I should try another direct comparison of the SOtM bundle versus the microRendu, as things have worked out, I'm glad I did.
So on Sunday morning I pulled the SOtM kit out of the rack in a way that would make cable swapping quick and easy. I was also in a much better frame of mind than I was last week when I tried this comparison, on that occasion I was quite simply trying to cram too much into one day, today I was relaxed and far more focused on the task. Furthermore, I now had a better idea as to what exactly was niggling me about the SOtM kit, there were some very specific parts of some recordings that were troubling me. So to the listening, this time I was taking notes, and if I noticed something that was not quite right, I was making a note, marking the time, going back, rechecking, you get the idea. I could write for hours about some of the observations, but I do not have time so I will go to the key issue. What I have found is that the SOtM kit is better than the microRendu, and it is better in every aspect right the way through the frequency range with much better dynamics on top. OK, this will probably not win the shock revelation of the week prize. The interesting thing though is that there appears to be a difference in the treble balance between the microRendu and the SOtM kit, with the SOtM kit being the brighter of the two. As a double check on this point, I ripped a CD of a couple of the tracks I was using in the comparison and played them through the Mutec MC3+USB / REF10 combo direct from my Blu-Ray player. This was worthwhile doing because in terms of this treble balance issue, this indicated that it was the microRendu that is a little dull, rather than the SOtM kit being too bright, a similar check using Devialet's AIR streaming direct yielded a similar result. OK, here I am lucky to have a Devialet amp that has good old-fashioned tone controls. Subjectively, I was finding that turning the treble up maybe +2 or +3 dB on the Devialet brought the microRendu on a par with the SOtM in terms of treble balance, or you could go -2dB down to take the SOtM to microRendu levels. With this established, I revisited some of the sections of music that were troubling me with the SOtM kit, the result being that these sections became even more troubling via the microRendu. It would appear that I was simply picking up on characteristics inherent with the recording themselves, with the microRendu, these are masked to a degree, with the SOtM, they are not. Take the same section of music with the slightly niggling section, treble down -3dB on the Devialet, the aspect that was niggling me is no longer apparent enough to bother me. To take a specific example, the sound of a snare might sound a touch distorted, with the SOtM you can clearly hear a touch distorted snare, with the microRendu, more distorted, less snare, take the treble down 3dB, you can still hear it, but it ceases to become a niggle. With this understood, and indeed a way to equalise the issue, things fell into place and I could start to concentrate on other aspects of the presentation without being niggled by one thing, and yes, the SOtM kit can pull out some real magic in terms of textured bass, atmosphere, realism and all the rest of it.
This leads me to an open question, I am sure we can all agree that both the microRendu and SOtM kit are capable of receiving an Ethernet input and creating a 'bit perfect' USB stream from this. No bit are being lost or changed, this would surely result in pops, clicks and similar. So, both devices are feeding the same bits to the MC3+USB. How then is it possible for one device to sound like the treble is turned down 3dB? I could speculate on answers to this, but it would just be speculation. Can anyone offer a decent explanation of this? I am thinking noise, but how does 'noise' in the system specifically blunt treble? Curious, but I would appreciate any better explanations of this. This point was touched upon in the thread between myself, thumb5 and ogs last week, but now I am as clear as I subjectively can be that there is a clear difference in the treble between the mR and other sources, it is far to apparent to be imagined.
While I am at it, a note to @yabaVR, if I count SMPS's on the ground floor of my house I get 14 in my main living room, plus another 4 in the kitchen. Pretty horrific! So maybe a A/B check before and after a SMPS purge might be interesting when I get the time. Unfortunately, I cannot purge all of them, one is running my PC, another the router that feeds my streaming system, one powers the SOtM kit. OK, those could be replaced with LPSU's, but then there are another two inside of the Devialet's themselves, not much I can do about that. But the one connected to the radio in the kitchen, the phone chargers, the TV, TV digital box and so on, could all be powered down for a check. Might be interesting.
As one last point, with the one month sale or return date approaching fast, the SOtM bundle is staying in my rack!
So on Sunday morning I pulled the SOtM kit out of the rack in a way that would make cable swapping quick and easy. I was also in a much better frame of mind than I was last week when I tried this comparison, on that occasion I was quite simply trying to cram too much into one day, today I was relaxed and far more focused on the task. Furthermore, I now had a better idea as to what exactly was niggling me about the SOtM kit, there were some very specific parts of some recordings that were troubling me. So to the listening, this time I was taking notes, and if I noticed something that was not quite right, I was making a note, marking the time, going back, rechecking, you get the idea. I could write for hours about some of the observations, but I do not have time so I will go to the key issue. What I have found is that the SOtM kit is better than the microRendu, and it is better in every aspect right the way through the frequency range with much better dynamics on top. OK, this will probably not win the shock revelation of the week prize. The interesting thing though is that there appears to be a difference in the treble balance between the microRendu and the SOtM kit, with the SOtM kit being the brighter of the two. As a double check on this point, I ripped a CD of a couple of the tracks I was using in the comparison and played them through the Mutec MC3+USB / REF10 combo direct from my Blu-Ray player. This was worthwhile doing because in terms of this treble balance issue, this indicated that it was the microRendu that is a little dull, rather than the SOtM kit being too bright, a similar check using Devialet's AIR streaming direct yielded a similar result. OK, here I am lucky to have a Devialet amp that has good old-fashioned tone controls. Subjectively, I was finding that turning the treble up maybe +2 or +3 dB on the Devialet brought the microRendu on a par with the SOtM in terms of treble balance, or you could go -2dB down to take the SOtM to microRendu levels. With this established, I revisited some of the sections of music that were troubling me with the SOtM kit, the result being that these sections became even more troubling via the microRendu. It would appear that I was simply picking up on characteristics inherent with the recording themselves, with the microRendu, these are masked to a degree, with the SOtM, they are not. Take the same section of music with the slightly niggling section, treble down -3dB on the Devialet, the aspect that was niggling me is no longer apparent enough to bother me. To take a specific example, the sound of a snare might sound a touch distorted, with the SOtM you can clearly hear a touch distorted snare, with the microRendu, more distorted, less snare, take the treble down 3dB, you can still hear it, but it ceases to become a niggle. With this understood, and indeed a way to equalise the issue, things fell into place and I could start to concentrate on other aspects of the presentation without being niggled by one thing, and yes, the SOtM kit can pull out some real magic in terms of textured bass, atmosphere, realism and all the rest of it.
This leads me to an open question, I am sure we can all agree that both the microRendu and SOtM kit are capable of receiving an Ethernet input and creating a 'bit perfect' USB stream from this. No bit are being lost or changed, this would surely result in pops, clicks and similar. So, both devices are feeding the same bits to the MC3+USB. How then is it possible for one device to sound like the treble is turned down 3dB? I could speculate on answers to this, but it would just be speculation. Can anyone offer a decent explanation of this? I am thinking noise, but how does 'noise' in the system specifically blunt treble? Curious, but I would appreciate any better explanations of this. This point was touched upon in the thread between myself, thumb5 and ogs last week, but now I am as clear as I subjectively can be that there is a clear difference in the treble between the mR and other sources, it is far to apparent to be imagined.
While I am at it, a note to @yabaVR, if I count SMPS's on the ground floor of my house I get 14 in my main living room, plus another 4 in the kitchen. Pretty horrific! So maybe a A/B check before and after a SMPS purge might be interesting when I get the time. Unfortunately, I cannot purge all of them, one is running my PC, another the router that feeds my streaming system, one powers the SOtM kit. OK, those could be replaced with LPSU's, but then there are another two inside of the Devialet's themselves, not much I can do about that. But the one connected to the radio in the kitchen, the phone chargers, the TV, TV digital box and so on, could all be powered down for a check. Might be interesting.
As one last point, with the one month sale or return date approaching fast, the SOtM bundle is staying in my rack!
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
